


Gave you my heart

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Community: hannibalkink, Dark Will, Gen, M/M, Murder Husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 04:20:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7669849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Hannibal and Will disappear Zeller and a new agent try to find them. Her name is Clarice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gave you my heart

Jack Crawford resigned after Hannibal Lecter’s escape and Will Graham’s disappearance.  
Brian Zeller took his place to try and clear up the mess left behind by bad decisions and worse judgment.  
Jack felt he had failed Will by indulging his insane plan, and that he had failed the men who were killed during Dolarhyde’s attack.  
Zeller would find Lecter or die trying; he had to make him pay for Beverly’s death at last.  
He had a new agent to break in, Jack’s latest protégé Clarice Starling.  
She was keen-eyed and lovely, and had something to prove. 

*  
The first day Starling was reading the case files, trying to get some idea of the case at hand.  
She had heard legends of Will Graham’s keen insight at the academy, and knew what he had been through if not the whole story.  
She didn’t even know if he still was alive, or dead, or if Lecter was keeping him holed up in some basement somewhere like he had done with Miriam Lass.  
“Should I talk to doctor du Maurier?” she asked. “She knew Lecter and Graham and she might have some insight.”  
“If you must. She talks in riddles, and is hardly trustworthy,” said Zeller.  
“Was she and Lecter lovers?”  
“Fuck knows. Might as well ask if he and Graham did the horizontal tango.”  
“Graham and Lecter?” her eyes widened. “Were they close like that?”  
“They gave each other heart-eyes a lot. Finished each others pretentious sentences,” said Zeller.  
“I thought Lecter tried to kill Graham several times.”  
“He did. It’s what he does,” said Price. “He killed our colleague Beverly Katz.”  
“This is personal,” said Starling.

*  
Bedelia du Maurier had a fancy home, and she was a classy looking lady.  
It made sense that a gourmet cannibal would take a shine to her.  
“Miss Starling,” said Bedelia and offered her a drink that she declined.  
“I’d like to ask about your relationship with doctor Lecter.”  
“As do they all,” said Bedelia and smiled as if she had told a private joke.  
“Do you know where he is?”  
“He’s the very devil. He’s in some hell.”  
“Very funny. Do you think Will Graham is alive?”  
“If Hannibal wants him alive then he is.”  
“Would Lecter want him alive in your opinion?” asked Starling.  
“He needed more of what Graham could give him. Love, loyalty, murders. “  
“So Lecter has him locked up somewhere.”  
“Maybe plying him with drugs like he did me.”  
“Where is Dolarhyde?”  
“I don’t know. If Hannibal wants him dead then he is dead.”  
“Physically he is very imposing. Lecter seems strong but..”  
“He is clever and devious. Clever and deadly. I’ve seen him kill larger men. I was in his thrall so I couldn’t intervene.”  
“I’m not blaming you for his crimes,” said Starling.  
“Good.”  
“Did he love Will?” asked Starling.  
“Yes. If the devil can love, then yes. “  
“That’s helpful. Did he have any secret hideaways?”  
“Yes. He was as rich as Croesus. He had houses all over the world.”  
“Do you know where they are located?”  
“No. I was not in on that information.”  
“You posed as his wife.”  
“I was Bluebeard’s wife, but not the last one. He gave me no keys,” she said bitterly.  
“Was Will the last wife?”  
“You tell me,” said Bedelia and sipped her wine, a blonde shadow of a woman in the half-light.

*  
“Dr du Maurier is very mysterious,” said Starling.  
“She is a complicated bitch,” said Zeller.  
“Why did Will Graham have so many dogs?” she asked.  
“He was a crazy dog lady. Why does it matter?”  
“Everything matters in a case like this. Where did Lecter keep Lass and Abigail Hobbs?”  
“We don’t know.”  
“Bedelia said he had many secret hideouts. She didn’t know where they were.”  
“How convenient for her.”  
“Did Lecter love Graham?” she asked.  
“Did Bedelia say he did?” asked Zeller.  
“Yes.”  
“He probably likes to play cat and mouse with his very own FBI agent. “  
“So Will is likely alive?”  
“It took him a year to grow bored of Miriam, and he let her live. Will is smarter than her, and his hooks in Will are deep by now. I think he’s alive.”  
“Good. Where is Lass now?”  
“In a clinic in California. Afraid of her own shadow.”  
Starling sighed.  
“He beat Jack Crawford and Jack’s a big guy,” said Zeller.  
“Dolarhyde might be dead.”  
“We just need to find the body,” said Price.

*  
Starling went to see Molly Graham, and she appeared to have moved on.  
She had taken off her ring, and she had given away most of Will’s dogs save Winston.  
She sounded tired of the whole mess, and gave very little new insight.  
Starling left her knowing it was a dead end.

*  
Starling read Tattle Crime at night until Ardelia made her stop and go to bed.  
There were countless sightings of the “murder husbands” and much speculation about them.  
Why had Will wanted to go looking for Lecter after he killed Abigail Hobbs?  
Was it to seek justice or had Will forgiven him? Could anyone forgive someone like that?  
There were no easy answers, and she was stumbling in the dark with a broken flashlight.  
Zeller and Price hardly knew Will, had only seen a few of his million layers.  
Lecter must have peeled away them all and enjoyed it.

*  
Starling was looking at Lecter’s drawings. There were buildings and people, all done beautifully.  
She found one of Lecter in Achilles’ place and Will as his lover Patroclus.  
There were nudes of Will as well as normal clothed studies.  
Price brought her a manila folder that contained more nudes; the first was of Alana Bloom, stretched out luxuriously, hand between her legs, a blissful expression on her lovely features, breasts heaving. Starling blushed though she was no prude. She thought of Ardelia briefly, then resumed her study of the drawings.  
She was unsurprised to find more ones of Will, in one he was lying on his back, presenting himself to his lover, stroking his erect cock.  
In one a monster man with a huge lovingly drawn phallus was penetrating him deeply.  
“Oh the Wendigo fuck one,” said Price. “Lecter was a kinky bugger.”  
The black shape of the wendigo was pounding into the pale Graham’s supple body.  
His face was distorted in ecstasy.  
Starling shuddered.  
Lecter was clearly identifying with the flesh-eating man-monster, and Graham was his love.  
She dreamed of the wendigo eating lambs.

*  
They found the house at the bluff almost by chance.  
Price had a receipt for a fine wine in Lecter’s house. It had been purchased just before the escape.  
They traced it to a small store where a man recalled an Asian woman buying it.  
Chiyoh, the also missing accomplice of Lecter who had saved Jack in Florence.  
“Eureka,” said Zeller. “His house is nearby.”  
They got lucky for once.

*  
The body of Francis Dolarhyde made a hideous sight, sprawled out on the patio like a sacrifice to some god. Hannibal Lecter always did have pretentions of godhood.  
Dolarhyde was stabbed many times, and as Zeller would discover his throat was torn out by deadly teeth. Lecter’s teeth.  
Price sighed. “There is a lot of blood.”  
Starling found Miriam Lass’ wallet, and a nightgown that might have belonged to Abigail Hobbs.  
There was even a copy of a Twilight book. Starling reflected that Lecter would have frowned at it.  
They found blood trails leading over the cliff, the blood belonged to Lecter and Graham.  
“They are dead,” said Zeller.  
Starling didn’t think so.  
Jack wept for his lost agent in secret, and for his wife.

*  
“Case closed,” said Zeller, seeking to put it behind him, even though the little voice in his head kept saying it wasn’t over. It was never over.  
“There are no bodies,” said Starling. “So they killed Dolarhyde and then killed themselves? Did Lecter fight it? Did Graham want to die? There are too many unanswered questions.”  
“Lecter is a man, he can die,” said Zeller.  
“Yes. But not here,” said Starling.  
She was sure Lecter was alive, and that his beloved was with him. 

*  
Then there was a new case. The body of a banker was found in his home, his eyes covered in gold and his heart was missing.  
There was so much blood.  
His name had been Ernest Bloman, two lines of footprints in blood led to his body.  
“Hey,” said Price. “This is familiar.”  
“Yes,” said Zeller and wondered if this madness would ever stop.  
Bloman’s daughter, a fragile looking waif talked of his cruelty to his dogs, and how he beat her.

*  
They couldn’t find any blood on the scene that wasn’t the victim’s.  
Starling reflected that the footprints must belong to two killers.  
They would walk towards the victim, kill him and then?  
Was it Lecter and Graham?  
Will was a good man, but he had killed Hobbs, Tier and Dolarhyde.  
Did Lecter remake him into his own twisted image?  
Her profile of Graham was getting too complex, too contradictory.  
Why had he left his wife to go on the lam with Lecter?  
Had he intended to end them at the bluff?  
Was he suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?  
Miriam had been completely in Lecter’s thrall and he didn’t love her.  
What couldn’t a man like Lecter do with someone he truly cherished?  
She shuddered. She wouldn’t want to be loved by someone like that.

*  
“Lecter was friendly,” said Alana Bloom, elegant in a Chanel dress in a blood red color. “At first.”  
“He tried to kill you,” said Starling.  
“Yes. We were friends and then lovers but he was only using me.”  
“What is it with him and Will?”  
“I don’t know. Will was a loner, and Hannibal understood him like no one else. They were alike in their weirdness.”  
“Do you think Will wants to kill people?” she asked.  
“If Hannibal wants him to.”  
“I suppose so.”  
“He always said he had Hannibal’s voice in his head, and that he felt at home with him.”  
“Because Lecter wanted it that way. To be the only one for him,” said Starling almost to herself.  
“He swore to kill me. I’m leaving the states now,” sighed Alana.  
“Sounds wise,” said Starling.

*  
The next murder was of a violinist called Mark Ryberg, and he was found strangled with his strings. It was no doubt very symbolic.  
His heart was missing.  
Starling sighed.  
Ryberg had been erudite, rich and strong physically.  
He was like a good version of Lecter.  
Perhaps that was a clue.

*  
“It’s like he’s killing Lecter and Lecter is letting him,” said Starling.  
“Why would Will do that?” asked Zeller.  
“Because he hates Lecter for killing his surrogate daughter and Beverly and for trying to kill Will himself. “  
“So why doesn’t he just kill the asshole?”  
“Because it’s perfect. This way he can unleash his aggressions on Lecter over and over and still keep the only one who understands him and loves him for who he is.”  
“Why is Lecter letting him do that?”  
“Because he’s killing people that way. Lecter’s a sly devil, this way Will is a killer and he’s bound to Lecter.”  
“That’s beyond messed up.”  
“You only knew part of Will. The part he dared show you. Lecter knew all of him and accepted him. He knew the dark ugly parts and made them stronger. He fed on them.”  
“Lecter’s a sick fuck,” said Price.  
“He’s a cannibal,” said Starling.

*  
She drove home quietly, and had the sense that she was being watched.  
As she got out of her car someone came up behind her and she felt the tiny pinprick of a needle before she passed out.

*  
Clarice awoke and she was in a white room in a villa. Paintings adorned the walls.  
She was tied to a chair and she felt strangely inert.  
She saw Will Graham, his face a mess of scars and Lecter busy with a new victim.  
The man was bound and gagged.  
“Agent Starling,” said Lecter. “Welcome.” His eyes were as dark as in all the pictures she had seen, and he moved with the grace of a dancer.  
“Why am I here?” she asked. ”To die?”  
“Now, now Starling. You are here to bear witness to our masterpiece. Our final one before we go off the grid.”  
“You had a good run,” said Starling. “Outfoxed us.”  
“Yes,” said Graham proudly.  
Graham stabbed the victim through the heart with a knife.  
Too late for him now.  
“Did you care that he’s killing substitute versions of you?” asked Starling.  
“Yes. I encourage it,” said Lecter coldly.  
“Aren’t you afraid he will really kill you?”  
“Then it will be a good death,” he said almost wistfully, eyes warm. He seemed so proud of his Will, his protégé and full disciple of darkness now.  
“How long can you keep this up? Neither of you are young men anymore with all due respect.”  
“As long as we like,” said Lecter.  
“Now you get to witness our celebration,” said Graham and smiled, with all his scars it looked unsettling.  
Starling frowned.  
She recalled the wendigo drawings and shuddered.  
Graham approached his lover and they kissed like they hadn’t been together for years.  
She now knew what they did at the first crime scene after the kill.  
They made love with their limbs entwined and covered in the dead man’s blood.  
Graham bit his lover’s neck, and Lecter leaned in and kissed him tenderly.  
Starling wanted to avert her eyes from their coupling but could not.  
They were utterly repugnant and divine.  
They took their pleasure from the jaws of the very death they has brought about, Will penetrating his lover, covered in the blood of their prey, Lecter utterly ravished by his favorite disciple.  
This they let her see let her witness as if it was a sacred ritual.  
She thought of Ardelia’s tender smile, and it was her talisman against the dark.

 

*  
Clarice awoke, alive and awake in the room, with a strange feeling in her bones.  
The victim was perfectly arranged and she was free from her restraints.  
She rose from the chair and went to see what the monsters has done with their feast.  
She called Zeller but said nothing of the amorous things she had seen amidst the horrors.  
She bore witness and they had to face that Will Graham was lost to the darkness.

*  
Zeller sat at his desk.  
Will Graham, one of their own had killed several innocents.  
He was shacked up with Beverly’s killer too, and Zeller would never understand that.  
Zeller didn’t know if he hurt more for her or for the lost agent.  
It didn’t really matter in the end. He had a job to do and he would have to do it, and live with the scars it left.  
He touched Beverly’s Batman action figure that she had given him, and waited for the day to end. The dark knight was a pale shelter against the dark corners of his mind.

*  
Starling got a call about a new case.  
They called him Buffalo Bill because he skinned his female victims.  
She went to the crime scene with a heavy heart.  
But she would see it through.

 

*  
In Argentina Lecter and Graham lay low, out of necessity.  
Under the warm sun they were settling in, and learning to cope with their new life.  
Will had stopped killing Lecter substitutes, and he still had much to learn.  
Lecter knew many things they could do as a couple to strengthen the relationship.  
This would be most satisfying for both of them.  
They would live like kings, and the world would tremble before them.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this prompt: "After the series, Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham are presumed to be on the run. They're probably holed up somewhere healing, but as far as the FBI knows they're alive and well and free. (The FBI probably doesn't know if Francis Dolarhyde is alive or dead either.) But once Hannibal is feeling well enough to move, he's going to be up to trouble again.
> 
> Now here's where it gets weird, but stay with me. I keep imagining Brian Zeller and Clarice Starling trying to hunt down Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham.
> 
> Hear me out. Jack is forced out of his position after Hannibal Lecter escapes. Zeller is a crime scene investigator, and could step into a lead investigator role. Top priority for the FBI: Capture Lecter and Dolarhyde. Clarice has just graduated from Quantico and is the newbie on the team, but she seems to have the ability to see into criminals. Zeller disregards what the newbie has to say at first, but some of her insights turn out to be right, and he starts paying attention. They form kind of the working relationship that Will and Jack had: Zeller looks at a crime scene and finds hard facts; Clarice looks at criminal profiles and sees the emotions and motivations. (I will love you forever if Clarice has an inferiority complex around Will Graham, and how she’ll never be able to do the scrying magic that he did on a crime scene.)
> 
> And I really want to see these two together because Zeller knows (but doesn't necessarily understand) the past, and Clarice is trying to put together Will and Hannibal's story (but she can only see half the story in the paperwork). So she's constantly trying to pry details about Will and Hannibal from Zeller. But he's still struggling with the past.
> 
> "Why did Lecter keep Abigail Hobbs alive?"  
> \- "I don't know. Graham said it was something about making them a family."
> 
> "Why did Will Graham have so many dogs?"  
> \- "Because he was a crazy dog lady. Why does it matter?"
> 
> "Why didn't Lecter kill Jack Crawford's wife?"  
> \- "I don't know? He was afraid he'd get caught."
> 
> "Why did Lecter kill Beverly Katz this way-"  
> \- "Stop. Just look at the current fucking case and stop digging into the past. It doesn't fucking matter!"
> 
> Zeller is kind of the big dumb jock on the team, but he's a good investigator, and he and Jimmy Price have emotional scars of their own from everything that happened, and Clarice's questions and constant digging makes him face some facts about his own grief and limitations. He's forced to face that he's blind to a lot of what happened, that he can see facts but not understand how or why it all unfolded the way it did, that he's still blind when it comes to understanding Will and Hannibal Lecter, that he ultimately feels Jack failed (when he only wants to defend Jack), that he was a little attached to Will and that Will ultimately betrayed them, and that he's still grieving for Beverly.
> 
> I'm a big Hannibal/Will fangirl, but I really want to see the reactions and viewpoints of the side characters left behind in the wake of Will and Hannibal's mess. So basically Zeller and Clarice and Price, on investigative adventures. They eventually find Hannibal’s second home, and Dolarhyde’s body, and all the blood leading to the cliff. Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter must be dead too. (And then new murders start showing up, Chesapeake Ripper murders, but with something more.)
> 
>  
> 
> AND (because I love case fic) I would love it if Will and/or Hannibal are actively giving the FBI a hard time. How about some murderer Will, easily stumping the FBI? I have this whole other idea about how Will's pathology would be reenacting killing Hannibal (substitute Hannibals) over and over. And maybe saving (substitute) Abigail. But also sleeping with Hannibal and having fucked up murder sex. Yes/yes? "


End file.
